NATPE Europe Attendees Show Cautious Optimism About CEE Recovery

PRAGUE: After three days of surveying market attendees, Bob Jenkins reports that the picture of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) at NATPE Europe is of a region coming back from a low, but one with a few demons still in need of slaying.   

“For the past few years, the markets of Central and Eastern Europe have been relatively quiet, with broadcasters only really willing to commit to small, safe, non-scripted formats, but now there is a definite upturn in both scripted and non-scripted formats.” This view of Sivan Menashe, sales manager at Dori Media Group, neatly encapsulates a prevailing mood of cautious optimism amongst sellers at NATPE Europe.

Menashe goes on to cite the sale of Dori’s Ciega a Citas format to Poland and “lots of offers pre-NATPE Europe” as evidence of this, alongside “sales of longer-running Argentinean dramas and high-end Israeli comedies and dramas.” Although she does caution that “there are still real pressures on production budgets.”

An upturn in sales of both formats and finished pickups is also reported by Robyn Hurd, the senior director of international content sales for EMEA at A+E Networks, and Anat Lewinsky, a sales executive at Armoza Formats. Hurd notes “a definite upturn in format sales, especially for those of a positive, uplifting, transformative nature for the individual concerned”—but again there is a qualification, as Hurd says “paper formats are a very difficult sell, and most buyers really need to see success not only in a format’s home market, but usually in other markets as well.”

Similarly, Lewinsky reports “strong broadcaster interest in both fiction and entertainment formats as well as sales of pickups such as I Can Do That,” which she says is “currently in advanced stages of negotiation in several CEE markets.” Lewinsky also notes that “there is a growing demand from broadcasters for ancillary digital rights for exploitation and cross-promotion on platforms, many of them are newly launching.”

As might be expected, Claudia Sahab, the director for Europe at Televisa Internacional, has a very positive view of the CEE region, describing it as “the base of our business in Europe.” This is, of course, a base built on the well-established Eastern European love of the telenovela. Sahab quoted recent deals for Wild at Heart (Corazón Indomable) with TV4 in Poland and What Life Took From Me (Lo Que La Vida Me Robo) with TV Puls in Poland as well as established telenovela slots on five different Hungarian broadcasters, including TV2. In fact, Sahab taps Hungary and Poland as the two growth markets in the region—although she is also delighted by a “recent comeback in the ex-Yugoslavia after two years in which they were buying Turkish drama.”

But, there are still regional problems. Budget pressures and falling values in local currencies are two main reasons for concern, as is the oft-cited ‘political instability’ in the region, exemplified by the well-documented problems in Ukraine. Although, that said, A+E’s Hurd fingers Ukraine as a “real opportunity,” arguing that Ukrainian broadcasters are not taking the Russian content they once did and that gap in local schedules has to be filled somehow—and that’s an opportunity.